The Monastery of the Cross is a monastery near the Nayot

Nayot

Nayot is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem, Israel established in 1960 by a group of English-speaking immigrants.-Etymology:The name Nayot appears mentioned six times in the Bible, in I Samuel .-History:...

 neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. It is located in the Valley of the Cross

Valley of the Cross

The Valley of the Cross is a valley in western Jerusalem, named after the Monastery of the Cross which is located in the valley.The monastery was built in the 11th century, during the reign of King Bagrat IV by the Georgian Giorgi-Prokhore of Shavsheti...

, below the Israel Museum

Israel Museum

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....

 and the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

.

History

The monastery was built in the 11th century, during the reign of King Bagrat IV

Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires...

 by the Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 Giorgi-Prokhore of Shavsheti. It is believed that the site was originally consecrated in the 4th century under the instruction of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who later gave the site to the Georgian King Mirian III of Iberia

Mirian III of Iberia

Mirian III was a king of Iberia , contemporaneous to the Roman emperor Constantine I .According to the early medieval Georgian annals and hagiography, Mirian was the first Christian king of Iberia, converted through the ministry of Nino, a Cappadocian female missionary...

 after the conversion of his country to Christianity in 327 A.D.

Legend has it that the monastery was erected on the burial spot of Adam's head — though two other locations in Jerusalem also claim this honor — from which grew the tree that gave its wood to the cross

Cross

A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...

 on which Christ

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 was crucified

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...

.

Due to heavy debt the monastery was sold by the Georgians

Georgians

The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....

 to the Greeks

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 in 1685 and is currently occupied by monks of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. It possesses a rich library, including many Georgian manuscripts.

Current buildings

The remains of the crusader

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 period monastery forms a small part of the current complex, most of which dates much more recently and has undergone considerable restoration and rebuilding. The crusader section houses a church, including a grotto where a window into the ground below allows viewing of the spot where the tree from which the cross was (reputedly) fashioned grew. Remains from the 4th century are sparse, the most important of which is a fragment of a mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

. The main complex houses living quarters as well as a museum and gift shop.

Rustaveli fresco

A fresco of the legendary Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli

Shota Rustaveli

Shota Rustaveli was a Georgian poet of the 12th century, and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. He is author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" , the Georgian national epic poem....

on a column inside the church was defaced in June 2004 by unknown vandals. The face and part of the accompanying inscription were scratched out. Georgia officially complained to Israel after the incident. Similar incidents occurred in the monastery in 1970s and 1980s. The Georgian inscriptions were painted over and replaced by Greek ones. In the 1901 photograph of the Council of Archangels there are Georgian inscriptions, but on the 1960 photographs the inscriptions are Greek; after cleaning the paintings, the Georgian inscriptions emerged again. The same happened in the case of the Anapeston. In many places (e.g. near the figures of St. Luke and St. Prochore) the outline of Georgian letters are clearly seen under the Greek inscription that is there now; in the 1980s the Greek Patriarchate had the frescoes ‘restored’ or, to be more precise, they were repainted very crudely with oil paints to acquire a more ‘complete aspect,’ as a result of which many features of the original paintings have been lost.